MAKATI CITY, 07 May 2021 – Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) is now an accessing entity (AE) of the Credit Information Corporation (CIC)—the country’s public credit registry and repository of credit information.
Known as a pillar of the banking industry with its wide range of financial services, RCBC may now access borrowers’ credit information either directly from the CIC or through any of its accredited bureaus namely CIBI Information Inc., CRIF Philippines, and Transunion Information Solutions.
“We are glad to welcome another universal bank to our continuously growing roster of financial institutions investing in the CIC database for their risk management and credit-related activities. This is an important decision for any financial institution, especially given the constantly changing needs of the borrowers amid the pandemic,” Atty. Aileen L. Amor-Bautista, CIC’s Senior Vice President for Business Development and Communications, mentioned.
The SVP added that the onboarding of RCBC further affirms the significance of the CIC database in the country’s credit landscape, especially with almost 25 million unique data subjects and 90 million contract data as of April 2021.
Uplifting Filipino consumers
True to its commitment to uplift the lives of borrowers, RCBC shared that the decision to become an accessing entity of the CIC was anchored on their vision to provide and adapt to customer’s changing needs.
“This move is part of our goal to continuously deliver innovative products and services. Now that we have ready access to borrowers’ credit data from the CIC database, we can better assess our borrowers and accelerate the loan approval process. At the end of the day, it’s all for the customers,” RCBC’s First Senior Vice President Bennett Clarence Dy Santiago shared.
In the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed by SVP Amor-Bautista and FSVP Dy Santiago, RCBC, as with all other accessing entities, shall use the CIC Credit Reports for the declared purpose of establishing the creditworthiness of a data subject.
The bank reaped various awards in 2020 including the Best Digital Bank in the Philippines by Alpha Southeast Asia and Asiamoney, for their inclusive and digital banking services during the pandemic.
In the same year, the CIC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with RCBC to promote digital financial inclusion and literacy among the unbanked, underbanked, and underserved population through the Diskartech mobile app.
Price per inquiry, data quality
The SVP further cited that this is the best time for submitting entities to go beyond compliance and access the CIC database while the price per credit report inquiry is still at P10.
“Accessing entities may continue to assess borrowers at this introductory rate until June 2021, as approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) En Banc in January. This is in response to the challenges faced by both the borrowers and lenders during the pandemic,” Atty. Amor-Bautista continued.
As of date, around 20% or 111 out of the CIC’s 585 submitting entities in production—financial institutions that are already submitting live credit data of their borrowers in compliance with the Credit Information System Act (CISA)—are registered as accessing entities.
“It is a milestone for us that these financial institutions recognize the value of the credit registry and see an actual solutions partner in CIC. This can also be attributed to the continuous enhancements that we deploy in the CIC database,” the SVP ended.
In addition to RCBC, other newly onboarded accessing entities of the CIC for April 2021 are Yuanta Savings Bank Philippines Inc., Mother Rita Multipurpose Cooperative, Cooperative Bank of Bohol, and Cagsawa Rural Bank Inc.
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The Credit Information Corporation (CIC), a government-owned and controlled corporation, was created by Republic Act No. 9510, otherwise known as the Credit Information System Act (CISA). The primary mandate of CIC is to establish a comprehensive and centralized credit information system for the collection and dissemination of fair and accurate information relevant to, or arising from, credit and credit-related activities of all entities participating in the ecosystem.
